Introduction
How do we evaluate our school? We may say that our school is one of the best ones because of high test scores. However, it cannot tell us everything. In this research, I'd like to analyze one specific school, Barrington Middle School. My research is going to describe the school and district as well as the community which the school is connected with. In the school analysis section, we focus on the school meeting standards and the connection between meeting standards and teaching practice. This analysis helps us to find not only the strong point of academics but also weak point because of poor teaching practice. We also focus relationships between teachers and students based on their views. In the community background section, we look at how much people in the district concern with children/ students. In the district section, we focus per-pupil expenditures for education and what kind of communities the district has their influence on the schools and students. NICE INTRODUCTION.
Community Background
According to the data of 2000 U.S.Census Bureau, Barrington holds the population of 16,819 people. Compared with that of Rhode Island, 1,048,319 it accounts for only a sixty third OF THE TOTAL POPULATION. As for a diversity of this district, 96.4% of the people in the town is White, only 1.8% of them is Asian and the percentage of other groups account for less than one percent (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). These show that the Barrrington is not large and not diverse. GOOD. There are 6,011 households and most of them are classified as a family household, which accounts for 78,4%. Among them 40.3% have children under the age of 18 living with them. There are various households in Barrington and no matter how they are, over half of them have kids under 18 years old (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). The households' median income in Barrington is $74,591 which is much higher than that of Rhode Island, $42,090 (U.S Census Bureau,2000) Additionally, the median household income in Barrington is much higher than that of the other areas in the U.S., and also the percent of families below poverty is only 3.0% compared with that of U.S., 9.2% (U.S. Ceusus Bureau, 2000). These show that Barrington is much wealthier compared with Rhode Island and U.S. average.
As for educational status, the number of kids 3 years and over enrolled in school is 5,088. With the population 18 to 24 years, the percent of high school graduates is almost 80% and the percentage of enrollment in college or graduate school is nearly half. Compared with those of United States, where high school graduates rate is 74.7% and college/ graduate school rate is 34%, the quality of education in this district is pretty high (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB PROVIDING COMPARISONS FOR YOUR STATISTICS.
District Summary
Barrington district has 10 schools; six of them are public and rest of them are private. As for the public schools, the district has Barrington High School, Barrington Middle School, Hampden Meadows School, Nayatt School, Primrose Hill School and Sowams Elementary School (CITATION?) . As for per-pupil expenditures, the expenditure per student for all program of this district is $10,557 which is smaller than that of Rhode Island, $11,952. The expenditure for general education is also smaller compared with that of the state. Focusing expenditures for various students populations, Per-pupil expenditures for special education in Barrington is $23,079, which is smaller than that of the state, $25,968. Similarly, the expenditures for English language learners in this district is $12,283, which is smaller than that of the state, $13,803. However, on the other hand, expenditures for career and technical preparation here, $17,484 is much larger than that of the state, $14,788 (Information Works!, 2005-06). This result shows that Barrington is take account of career and technical preparation.
Here in the Barrington district, there is a non-profit organization called The Barrington Education Foundation (BEF). It dedicates its time to support and enrich of all student within the Barrington public schools. How does the organization help these schools? According to one of the announcements of 2007, It granted six schools with awards such as books, projectors, recorders and so on. As for Barrington Middle School, it received graphic novels for its library, eleven LCD projectors and MP3/ WAV and CD recorders. The cost was $13,683, which was the highest among six schools (Education Department of Barrington, 2007). The library is also helpful to students. The Barrington Public Library contains more than 107,000 books and 180 periodical titles as well as 1,600 audio casettes (Barrington Library, 2004). The library provides several meeting rooms available for community use and also offers various programs for children, young adults and adults. They can join films, book discussions, lectures and so on. There is also an organization called The Police Athletic League for young crime prevention. This program relies on athletics to create and cement a bond between police officers and kids in the community. PAL offers various athletic programs such as wrestling, weightlifting, golf, a golf tournament as well as track and field (Barrington Police, 1988).
Nice description of district. Again, there are some awkward phrases, but I like the way you draw comparisons using data for RI State. I wonder why the schools are so good when the spending is relatively low.- fogleman
School Analysis
The students of Barrington Middle School has 865 students and 63 teachers and the student-teacher ratio stands at about 12:1 which is better than that of Rhode Island; 11:1 (Information Works!, 2005-06). The students though not many, are from various ethnic backgrounds. 97% of them are white students and African-American, Asian and Hispanic are just 1% each, and from this figure, you can see the reason why no one receives ESL(English as a Second Language)/bilingual education services (Information Works!, 2007). From this result, we can say that the school has no problem with a language education for non-native English speakers.
How can we evaluate learning and achievement of this school? Does it meet standards? The R.I. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (RIDE) determines school-performance classifications based on the No Child Left Behind Act and gives test scores, participation rate on tests, and attendance rates. Both scores in Mathematics and English Language Arts are about 95% and meet 2006 state target (ELA 73.3%, Math 55.1%). In the same as this, participation rates and attendance rates are above the state target. Especially, participation rates of both ELA and Math are 100%. As this result shows, this school is evaluated to be high performing and commended. In fact, according to 2006 school-performance classifications, the school is approved as one of the middle schools improving in both English language arts and mathematics for two years or achieving at an exceptionally high level.
As for performance progress, however, we can see the school's score in writing goes down suddenly in a year compared with other R.I. middle schools. What causes this result? According to the information of curriculum and instruction on teaching practices, the percentage of students who receive instruction in writing skills is 67% compared with 70% of other middle schools in R.I. Also, the percent of students who revise their reports and papers is only 29% for 43% of other schools. In my opinion, the rapid decrease of the writing score relates to teaching practices. Such results will be helpful to find causes and solutions (Information Works!, 2005-06).
Nice interpretation of the data. - fogleman Oct 18, 2007
A good school has a solid relationship between the adults and children. Does Barrington middle school have enough connectedness between students and teachers as well as among professional colleagues? The following analysis is based on comparison with other middle schools in R.I. As for connectedness among teachers, the number of teachers in this school who agree that they respect each others' ideas and opinions more than that of other middle schools in R.I. They also think that co-workers stimulate and support them and that they get opportunities to accomplish something worthwhile. However, they would like to use their skills and knowledge for their job more. About 60% of the teachers in this school agree that the school ought to be changed (Information Works!, 2007). From these teacher responses, we can tell that they are satisfied with relationship among co-workers, on the other hand, they don't feel comfortable with systems which administrators might control. As a whole, we can say that Barrington middle school has more teachers who like to suppOrt with other teacher each other compared to that of other schools in Rhode Island. Not to mention, teachers' relationships influence on students' academic performance. This shows a high level academic performance of the school. Thus, we should pay close attention to these information because good relationships among teachers help them to motivate themselves as a teacher and it also influence on students.
How do these numbers compare with the state as a whole? - fogleman Oct 18, 2007
How about connectedness between students and teachers in this school? We can point out gaps between those two from both of their responses. About only 10% of the students think that they can get individual help and advising from teachers which is below the average of percent of other R.I. middle schools. However, all of the teachers think that they interact with children in ways that show interest and respect. How do students feel comfortable on talking to teachers? The survey shows that 47% of the students in this school feel comfortable to talk to teachers about academic issues more than students in other schools feel; the percentage of this is 36% on average. It is absolutely necessary for kids to talk about their academic issues to their teacher, but also teachers should make students feel like talking about their personal or family problems. Actually, only 17% of the students think that they can do so. To much concentrating on academic issues oppress students and this can cause them to become delinquent. The percentage of students who have got involved in drugs and been robbed in this school,13% is a little bit high than that of other school,11% (Information Works!, 2005-06).
Conclusion
Although there some points which should be paid attention to from the view of students and teachers, Barrington Middle School, as we have seen, is meeting standards completely, thus, it is evaluated one of the most high performing schools in Rhode Island. Their high level evaluation is not only because of the school efforts, but also the community and district related to each other. Most people in the Barrington community, in fact, are well-educated and have a sense of high quality for raising children and their consciousness contributes school performances. Therefore, we can evaluate that Barrington school is surrounded by great community and the district.
Evaluation / Feedback for EDC 102 Context Statement
Total Score for this Evaluation: 34 /35 pts
Rubric
Introduction = 5 / 5 pts.
5 - Intro provides an overview of the upcoming analysis, including what school/district/community is being analyzed, what aspects are being analyzed, and who the report is intended to inform.
4 - Intro names the school/district/community and previews the scope of the report, but does not describe who the report is intended to inform.
3 - Intro names the school/district/community but not much else.
2 - Intro fails to name the school, district, and community.
0 - No introduction section is apparent.
Organization = 5 / 5 pts.
5 - Report includes an Introduction, a Conclusion, and sections for the School, District, and Community. Within each section, paragraphs logically group the information presented.
4 - Report includes all of the sections mentioned previously, but does not break down information into paragraphs within each section.
3 - Report is missing one of the sections.
2 - Report is missing more than one section.
0 - Report does not include any sections.
Mechanics = 4 / 5 pts.
5 - All information in the report is cited using APA styled- citations after the information and in a Reference section at the end of the report.
and
There are extremely few typos and misspelled words in the report.
4 - Most information is cited using APA style.
and/or
There are a noticeable number of typos or misspellings.
3 - Some citations in the References section are not in APA style, e.g. URLs are listed without the title of the website.
and/or
There are many typos, misspellings, or other writing errors.
2 - Most of the report's information is not cited, or APA style was not used.
0 - Report does not include a Reference section.
Strengths and constructive comments about report's organization:
Conclusion = 5 / 5 pts.
5 - Conclusion reviews analysis of school, district and community and describes why findings should be important to reader.
4 - Conclusion reviews analysis of school, district and community.
3 - Conclusion does not refer back to report findings.
0 - No conclusion section is apparent.
Strengths and constructive comments about conclusion:
Creativity = 4 / 5 pts.
5 - Report is written in an engaging style.
4 - Report has some interesting sections.
3 - Report generally reports information without seemingly without purpose.
YOU DID A NICE JOB REFINING YOUR PHRASING.
Thoroughness = 10 /10 pts
5 - Report includes at least ten different facts in each section (school, community, district) and
compares each figure with another relevant figure (e.g. state or national average) and
states whether or not the school is meeting NCLB standards.
4 - Report includes at least eight different facts in each section and
compares most figures with relevant values and
states whether or not the school is meeting NCLB standards.
3 - Report includes at least six different facts in each section and
compares some of the figures to other relevant figures
2 - Report includes at least four different facts in each section and
compares some of the figures to other relevant figures.
0 - Report includes less than four different facts for any section or
fails to compare any figures with other relevant figures.
Barrington Middle School
Introduction
How do we evaluate our school? We may say that our school is one of the best ones because of high test scores. However, it cannot tell us everything. In this research, I'd like to analyze one specific school, Barrington Middle School. My research is going to describe the school and district as well as the community which the school is connected with. In the school analysis section, we focus on the school meeting standards and the connection between meeting standards and teaching practice. This analysis helps us to find not only the strong point of academics but also weak point because of poor teaching practice. We also focus relationships between teachers and students based on their views. In the community background section, we look at how much people in the district concern with children/ students. In the district section, we focus per-pupil expenditures for education and what kind of communities the district has their influence on the schools and students. NICE INTRODUCTION.
Community Background
According to the data of 2000 U.S.Census Bureau, Barrington holds the population of 16,819 people. Compared with that of Rhode Island, 1,048,319 it accounts for only a sixty third OF THE TOTAL POPULATION. As for a diversity of this district, 96.4% of the people in the town is White, only 1.8% of them is Asian and the percentage of other groups account for less than one percent (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). These show that the Barrrington is not large and not diverse. GOOD. There are 6,011 households and most of them are classified as a family household, which accounts for 78,4%. Among them 40.3% have children under the age of 18 living with them. There are various households in Barrington and no matter how they are, over half of them have kids under 18 years old (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). The households' median income in Barrington is $74,591 which is much higher than that of Rhode Island, $42,090 (U.S Census Bureau,2000) Additionally, the median household income in Barrington is much higher than that of the other areas in the U.S., and also the percent of families below poverty is only 3.0% compared with that of U.S., 9.2% (U.S. Ceusus Bureau, 2000). These show that Barrington is much wealthier compared with Rhode Island and U.S. average.
As for educational status, the number of kids 3 years and over enrolled in school is 5,088. With the population 18 to 24 years, the percent of high school graduates is almost 80% and the percentage of enrollment in college or graduate school is nearly half. Compared with those of United States, where high school graduates rate is 74.7% and college/ graduate school rate is 34%, the quality of education in this district is pretty high (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB PROVIDING COMPARISONS FOR YOUR STATISTICS.
District Summary
Barrington district has 10 schools; six of them are public and rest of them are private. As for the public schools, the district has Barrington High School, Barrington Middle School, Hampden Meadows School, Nayatt School, Primrose Hill School and Sowams Elementary School (CITATION?) . As for per-pupil expenditures, the expenditure per student for all program of this district is $10,557 which is smaller than that of Rhode Island, $11,952. The expenditure for general education is also smaller compared with that of the state. Focusing expenditures for various students populations, Per-pupil expenditures for special education in Barrington is $23,079, which is smaller than that of the state, $25,968. Similarly, the expenditures for English language learners in this district is $12,283, which is smaller than that of the state, $13,803. However, on the other hand, expenditures for career and technical preparation here, $17,484 is much larger than that of the state, $14,788 (Information Works!, 2005-06). This result shows that Barrington is take account of career and technical preparation.
Here in the Barrington district, there is a non-profit organization called The Barrington Education Foundation (BEF). It dedicates its time to support and enrich of all student within the Barrington public schools. How does the organization help these schools? According to one of the announcements of 2007, It granted six schools with awards such as books, projectors, recorders and so on. As for Barrington Middle School, it received graphic novels for its library, eleven LCD projectors and MP3/ WAV and CD recorders. The cost was $13,683, which was the highest among six schools (Education Department of Barrington, 2007). The library is also helpful to students. The Barrington Public Library contains more than 107,000 books and 180 periodical titles as well as 1,600 audio casettes (Barrington Library, 2004). The library provides several meeting rooms available for community use and also offers various programs for children, young adults and adults. They can join films, book discussions, lectures and so on. There is also an organization called The Police Athletic League for young crime prevention. This program relies on athletics to create and cement a bond between police officers and kids in the community. PAL offers various athletic programs such as wrestling, weightlifting, golf, a golf tournament as well as track and field (Barrington Police, 1988).
Nice description of district. Again, there are some awkward phrases, but I like the way you draw comparisons using data for RI State. I wonder why the schools are so good when the spending is relatively low.-
School Analysis
The students of Barrington Middle School has 865 students and 63 teachers and the student-teacher ratio stands at about 12:1 which is better than that of Rhode Island; 11:1 (Information Works!, 2005-06). The students though not many, are from various ethnic backgrounds. 97% of them are white students and African-American, Asian and Hispanic are just 1% each, and from this figure, you can see the reason why no one receives ESL(English as a Second Language)/bilingual education services (Information Works!, 2007). From this result, we can say that the school has no problem with a language education for non-native English speakers.
How can we evaluate learning and achievement of this school? Does it meet standards? The R.I. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (RIDE) determines school-performance classifications based on the No Child Left Behind Act and gives test scores, participation rate on tests, and attendance rates. Both scores in Mathematics and English Language Arts are about 95% and meet 2006 state target (ELA 73.3%, Math 55.1%). In the same as this, participation rates and attendance rates are above the state target. Especially, participation rates of both ELA and Math are 100%. As this result shows, this school is evaluated to be high performing and commended. In fact, according to 2006 school-performance classifications, the school is approved as one of the middle schools improving in both English language arts and mathematics for two years or achieving at an exceptionally high level.
As for performance progress, however, we can see the school's score in writing goes down suddenly in a year compared with other R.I. middle schools. What causes this result? According to the information of curriculum and instruction on teaching practices, the percentage of students who receive instruction in writing skills is 67% compared with 70% of other middle schools in R.I. Also, the percent of students who revise their reports and papers is only 29% for 43% of other schools. In my opinion, the rapid decrease of the writing score relates to teaching practices. Such results will be helpful to find causes and solutions (Information Works!, 2005-06).
Nice interpretation of the data. -
A good school has a solid relationship between the adults and children. Does Barrington middle school have enough connectedness between students and teachers as well as among professional colleagues? The following analysis is based on comparison with other middle schools in R.I. As for connectedness among teachers, the number of teachers in this school who agree that they respect each others' ideas and opinions more than that of other middle schools in R.I. They also think that co-workers stimulate and support them and that they get opportunities to accomplish something worthwhile. However, they would like to use their skills and knowledge for their job more. About 60% of the teachers in this school agree that the school ought to be changed (Information Works!, 2007). From these teacher responses, we can tell that they are satisfied with relationship among co-workers, on the other hand, they don't feel comfortable with systems which administrators might control. As a whole, we can say that Barrington middle school has more teachers who like to suppOrt with other teacher each other compared to that of other schools in Rhode Island. Not to mention, teachers' relationships influence on students' academic performance. This shows a high level academic performance of the school. Thus, we should pay close attention to these information because good relationships among teachers help them to motivate themselves as a teacher and it also influence on students.
How do these numbers compare with the state as a whole? -
How about connectedness between students and teachers in this school? We can point out gaps between those two from both of their responses. About only 10% of the students think that they can get individual help and advising from teachers which is below the average of percent of other R.I. middle schools. However, all of the teachers think that they interact with children in ways that show interest and respect. How do students feel comfortable on talking to teachers? The survey shows that 47% of the students in this school feel comfortable to talk to teachers about academic issues more than students in other schools feel; the percentage of this is 36% on average. It is absolutely necessary for kids to talk about their academic issues to their teacher, but also teachers should make students feel like talking about their personal or family problems. Actually, only 17% of the students think that they can do so. To much concentrating on academic issues oppress students and this can cause them to become delinquent. The percentage of students who have got involved in drugs and been robbed in this school,13% is a little bit high than that of other school,11% (Information Works!, 2005-06).
Conclusion
Although there some points which should be paid attention to from the view of students and teachers, Barrington Middle School, as we have seen, is meeting standards completely, thus, it is evaluated one of the most high performing schools in Rhode Island. Their high level evaluation is not only because of the school efforts, but also the community and district related to each other. Most people in the Barrington community, in fact, are well-educated and have a sense of high quality for raising children and their consciousness contributes school performances. Therefore, we can evaluate that Barrington school is surrounded by great community and the district.
Good job on conclusion. -
References
Rhode Island Department of Education (2007). Information Works!. Retrieved October 12, 2007, from School Reports, Learning and Achievement:Assessments Web site: http://infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2007/pdf/achievement/01108M-achi.pdf
Rhode Island Department of Education (2007). Information works!. Retrieved October 12, 2007, from School Reports, Learning and Achievement:Accountability Web site: http://infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2007/pdf/accountability/01108M-acco.pdf
Rhode Island Department of Education (2007). School Reports, Using Information. Retrieved October 12, 2007, from Information Works! Web site: http://infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2007/pdf/usinginfo/01108M-info.pdf
Rhode Island Department of Education (2007). School Reports, Safe and Supportive Environments:Students' Point of View. Retrieved October 12, 2007, from Infromation Works! Web site: http://infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2007/state/pov-middle.pdf
Rhode Island Department of Education (2007). School Reports, Safe and Supportive Schools: Connectedness. Retrieved October 12, 2007, from Information Works! Web site: http://infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2007/pdf/connectedness/01108M-conn.pdf
Rhode Island Department of Education (2007). Curriculum and Instruction: Teaching Practices. Retrieved October 14, 2007, from Information Works! Web site: http://infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2007/state/teachingpractices-middle.pdf
Rhode Island Department of Education (2007). 2006 School-Peformances Classifications. Retrieved October 14, 2007, from Informaiton Works! Web site: http://infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2007/state/performance-middle.pdf
U.S.Ceusus Bureau (2000). School Enrollment: 2000. Retrieved October 14, 2007, from U.S.Census Bureau Web site:
www.factfinder.gov (School Enrollment)
U.S.Ceusus Bureau (2000). Income Distribution in 1999. Retrieved October 17, 2007, from U.S.Census Bureau Web site: www.factfinder.gov
Education Department of Barrington Town, RI (2007, January 24). News and Events. Retrieved October 14, 2007, from Barrington Education Publication Web site: http://www.barringtoneducation.org/news2004.html
Police Department of Barrington Town, RI (1988). The Police Athletic League. Retrieved October 14, 2007, from The official website of Barrington, RI Web site: http://www.ci.barrington.ri.us/government/police/youth.htm
Library Department of Barrington Town, RI (1994). Town Library. Retrieved October 15, 2007, from Town of Barrington Web site:
http://www.ci.barrington.ri.us/government/library.html
U.S.Ceusus Bureau (2000). Census 2000 Demographic Profile Highlights. Retrieved October 15, 2007, from U.S.Census Bureau Web site:
[[www.factfinder.gov]]
Information Works! (2007). Per-pupil Expenditures. Retrieved October 19, 2007, from Information Works! Web site: http://infoworks.ride.uri.edu/2007/pdf/ds-insite-bar/01d-expb.pdf
EDC102 Rubric Barrington MS
Evaluation / Feedback for EDC 102 Context Statement
Total Score for this Evaluation: 34 /35 ptsRubric
Introduction = 5 / 5 pts.
Organization = 5 / 5 pts.
Mechanics = 4 / 5 pts.
and
There are extremely few typos and misspelled words in the report.
and/or
There are a noticeable number of typos or misspellings.
and/or
There are many typos, misspellings, or other writing errors.
Conclusion = 5 / 5 pts.
Creativity = 4 / 5 pts.
Thoroughness = 10 /10 pts
compares each figure with another relevant figure (e.g. state or national average) and
states whether or not the school is meeting NCLB standards.
compares most figures with relevant values and
states whether or not the school is meeting NCLB standards.
compares some of the figures to other relevant figures
compares some of the figures to other relevant figures.
fails to compare any figures with other relevant figures.